It’s becoming more and more obvious that the Wii is not a console aimed at hardcore gamers. In fact, Red Steel 2, which was expected to sell a bunch of copies because it was pretty much what everyones been asking for: a FPS for the Wii with real time sword fighting.

Well, the numbers are in and they are ridiculously disappointing; only 50,000 copies sold within the first 12 days on the market.

There’s no telling why these numbers were so low but the fact that most people who own a Wii just want to play Wii Sports, coupled with the fact that you need a Wii MotionPlus add-on to play the game probably had something to do with it. Oh yeah, did I mention there was no multiplayer?

via cvg

According to latest reports from NPD, Red Steel 2 sold just over 50,000 copies in the US during its opening week, generating just over $1 million in revenue for Ubisoft, after the retailers get their cut. 50,000 isn’t much by any means, but Ubisoft expects the game to sell half a million copies worldwide.

Gamers everywhere were excited for the original Red Steel because it was supposed to really be the defining FPS for the console. However, when it made its way to shelves its awkward controls made it less than spectacular. However with Red Steel 2, Ubisoft is hoping to remedy that.

Anyways, Ubisoft has been kind enough to supply us with the above video showing off the gameplay to be featured in Red Steel 2. You can’t really tell if the controls are fixed because it doesn’t show someone wielding a Wiimote but from the looks of it, Red Steel 2 looks badass.

Red Steel 2 will be out for the Wii on March 23rd.

Ubisoft has announced that the anticipated sequel Red Steel 2 will be arriving in the states on March 23, while Europeans will get the game a few days later. The game will retail for $50 or $60 with the WiiMotion Plus attachment, which is a pretty decent deal.

Ouch! According to Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot, who spoke to investors addressing poor Avatar game sales a conference call, also noted that the company now expects Red Steel 2 sales to be half of the original estimate from a million units to just half of that. He gave no specific reason as to why, but one can assume the economic downturn has something to do with it, or perhaps, the quality of Red Steel 2 isn’t what was expected. Whatever it is, the game is out on March 23.

Digg this article!

While 2009 is drawing to an end, and with all the great AAA titles only weeks away, keep in mind that 2010 is going to see more top-notch titles released than the last few years. Here are 20 games that should/will make an impact next year, and while a lot more games are coming out, we obviously couldn’t include them all — our list grew from ten games to twenty games simply because even we were surprised how many title are lined up for 2010. Here’s our 20 games for 2010, in no particular order.

Postal 3 (PC, Xbox 360, PS3, Running With Scissors, Q2, 2010)

The original Postal was both hailed and damned for its controversial content, and the sequel, Postal 2 only made it better (or worse, if you’re a politician looking for some media attention). Postal 3 will expand on the sandbox style gameplay, and will even feature director Uwe Boll (who made the 2008 Postal movie) in a cameo role.

APB (PC, Xbox 360, March 2010)

After developing Crackdown for the Xbox 360, which has since become a cult classic on the console, Realtime Worlds shifted all their manpower to APB (All Points Bulletin), a revolutionary MMO set in a huge city where players battle each other as either law enforcement agents, or criminals. A kind of GTA online, as creator David Jones (the man behind GTA) is noted saying APB is “the bastard child of everything we’ve been striving towards over the 15-20 years”.

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (PC, PS3, Xbox 360, March 2, 2010)

Battlefield: Bad Company almost managed to perfect something no other FPS had done before: creating a fully destructible battlefield, where walls would no longer provide infinite cover — one tank shell and you better be looking to hide somewhere else. Coupled with a single player campaign and a solid multiplayer, Bad Company has been one of the most played FPS on the Xbox 360 and PS3. Bad Company 2 will bring “destruction 2.0″, taking destruction to a whole new level, this time, entire buildings and towns can be leveled to the ground.

Heavy Rain (PS3, February 2010)

Heavy Rain has been highly anticipated ever since it was first showcased at E3 2006 for the PlayStation 3, the film-noir, thriller-styled game will feature an intertwined storyline, with four playable characters, all looking for a serial killed going under the name “The Origami Killer”.

Halo Reach (Xbox 360, Q4 2010)

The next chapter in the Halo series and Master Chief’s battle against the Covenant was unveiled at E3 2009, without any further details other than the game would be the last Halo game to be developed by Bungie. Owners of Halo 3: ODST will have a chance to check out the game’s multiplayer beta in the middle of 2010, by then we should have more details on Reach.

Red Steel 2 (Wii, February 16, 2010)

The original Red Steel was the very first Wii game that was revealed, and rode a wave of anticipation until its release — as a Wii launch title — where it showed a flawed control scheme, dated visuals and uninspiring gameplay. Red Steel 2 is said to correct all those issues, and will require (and be bundled with) the Wii Motion Plus accessory, giving it a true 1:1 control input, paving the way for some great sword fights. We sure hope so.

Crysis 2 (PC, PS3, Xbox 360, Q4 2010)

The original Crysis is still bringing even the most powerful PCs to their knees, and is still hailed as the best looking game available, at least if a tropical island is what you crave. Crysis 2 continues the story where the original left off, and will use the new CryEngine 3, creating an even more immersive world. There aren’t many details of the game yet, but one thing is for sure: start saving for a new PC rig.
READ ON »

Red Steel 2 is shaping up to be a great game but just how many people will get the chance to play it remains unknown considering it is being released on only one console; the Wii. Sure, the Wii has sold ridiculous amounts of consoles but it’s generally hypothesized that the majority of those sales were to the casual players. Considering Red Steel 2 is what some would call a “hardcore” game, it would only make sense that Ubisoft would bring it to the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 but that wasn’t a possibility up until both Microsoft and Sony announced their own motion controllers.

Well, it seems that Joystiq recently sat down with the creative director of Red Steel 2, Jason VanderBerghe, and questioned him of the possibility of seeing the title appear on other consoles. He responded that he would love to see the Red Steel franchise appear on other consoles but ultimately the decision would be up to Ubisoft.

Red Steel 3 with Project Natal? Count me in.

First Red Steel 2 got delayed, then Splinter Cell: Conviction and now this — Capcom has recently announced that they are pushing back the release of Dark Void until Q1 2010.

Below is Capcom’s reasoning on the delay:

Dark Void is moving into Capcom’s fiscal Q4 in order to get the game out of the crowded fall game season and to allow the development team more time to polish and enhance the game experience.

Are game developers really that scared of Modern Warfare 2? Or do they just know something we don’t because it seems that only a handful of games are launching this Fall due to so many delays.

via Kotaku

The concept of the original Red Steel made gamers everywhere anticipate the game. However, once it actually hit the market it was often criticized for its clunky controls and various glitches in the gameplay.

Along comes Red Steel 2, a game looking to remedy all of the gripes found in the original Red Steel, and more. Unfortunately, Ubisoft has announced that the game is getting pushed back until early 2010.

This delay will come as a huge dissapointment to gamers looking to get their Wii MotionPlus sword weilding on.

Red Steel was one of the earliest hardcore games for the Wii and though it emphasized the sword-fighting that part of the gameplay was disappointing due to its gesture-based controls while the gun controls were much more realistic. With the sequel the developers are hoping to deliver on the original promise by utilizing Wii MotionPlus controls.

It’s been demoed at E3 and sounds like it’s a far superior version to the original, with creative director Jason Vandenberge squaring off against a hammer-wielding opponent. Ubisoft has confirmed that the game will be bundled with the controller peripheral since it’s now mandatory for the game. Chance are many will already have the Wii MotionPlus before then since it’ll be bundled along with several sports games and